The term patience embraces three quite different meanings. It is the act or quality of expecting long, without complaint, anger or discontent. Tt is the power or the act of suffering or beating quietly or with equanimity any eril—calmendurance. It is also employed as & synonym of perseverance. That the group of qualities to which reference is here made has a very important bearing on the life of the people to whom they belong, is obvious at a glance. The disadvantage arising from a se atate and a distinct examination of individual Chinese characteristics is nowhere more obvious than in the consideration of the qualities of patience and perseverance, 'These characteristics of the Chinese are inseparably connected with their comparative absence of nerves,' with their disregard of time,' and especially with that quality of industry,' by which the national patience and perseverance are most consplenously and most effectively illustrated. Whathasbeenalready said upon these topics will have served to suggest one of the chief virtues in the Chinese character, but the ily desultory treatment' involved in such incidental niention, deserves to be supplemented by a more' comprehensive presentation.
Among a dense population like that of the Chinese Empire, life is often reduced to its very lowest terms, and those terms are literally a struggle for existence." In order to live, itis necessary tu have the means of living, and those means each must obtain for himself, as best he can. Deep poverty lo for the means of existence will of themselves never muke aby human being industrious, but if a man a race is endowed with the instinct of industry, these are the conditions which will most effectually to develop industry. 'Phe same conditions will also tend to the development of economy, which, as we have seen, is a prominent Chinese' quality. These conditions also develop patience and perseverance, The hunter and the fisherman who know that their livelihood depend upon the stealth and wariness of their movements, and the patience with which they wait for their opportunity, will be stealthy, wary and patient, no matter whether they happen to belong to theracesof manked classed as civilised," to those called semi-civilised,' or to those known as savage.' The Chinese are a race who for ages have been hunting for a living under conditions frequently the most adverse, and they have thus learned to combine the active industry of the most civilised peoples, with the passive patience of the North American Indian. The Chinese are willing to inbour for a very lung period of time, for very swnall rewards, because small rewards are much better than none. Ages of experience have taught them that it is very difficult to make mere industry a stepping stone to those wider opportunities which we of the West have come to look upon as the natural results. 'They are natural' results, only in the sense that when appropriate conditions are found, these results will follow. A population of five hundred tu the square mile, it is scarcely necessary to observe, is not one of the conditions adapted to lend to practical verification of the adage that industry and economy ure the two hands of Fortusie, But the Chinese is content to toil on for such rewards as he may be able to get, and in this contentment, he illustrates his virtue of patience. It is related of the late General Grant, that on his return from that trip round the globe in which it is supposed that he was seen by more human beings than any other single individual had ever been, he was asked what was the most remarkable thing that he sav, He replied at once, that the most extraordinary sight which he anywhere beheld, was the spectacle of a petty Chinese dealer by his keen competition running oura Jew. There was great significance in the observation, The qualities of the Jewish people are by this time well known, and have led to most surprising results, but the Jews are after all but a minute fraction of the human race. The Chinese, on the other hand, are a considerable percentage of the whole population of the planet. The Jew who was run out by the Chinese, did not presumptively differ in any essential respect from any other Jew. The result of the competition
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.